Five for Friday (A Little Delayed) and I'm A WINNER!!!

I am so excited to be sharing my first Five for Friday...even if it is Sunday! It won't be very educational because this is my last day of spring break. BOO!! I am trying very hard not to throw a small HUGE tantrum right now! It  wouldn't be so bad if our last day of school wasn't June 26 and just in case you're wondering, that's 9 weeks and 3 days or 47 days...YIKES! Alright, I must stop complaining, no one needs to hear it, so without further ado I join Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday linky!

1. I know I have already posted about living in Massachusetts, but here I go again. What a week it's been. Like everyone else in the area has said, being on vacation we were glued to our tv's. I will be interested to see if my kiddos have questions/comments tomorrow. If this had to happen, I am grateful (not sure I can think of an appropriate word to use here) that it was over vacation. I can't imagine sitting in school wondering what was going on and having to address it daily with the kids, especially when we didn't have answers ourselves. This is one of my favorite inspirational posts from the past week. 

2. I received a very thoughtful and so-very-appropriate birthday gift from one of my best friends. She knows how much I LOVE the beach and that two of my favorite accessories are flip-flops and sunglasses, so here it is:

3. I have spent the last year or so contemplating getting my hair cut, short; short for me anyway. In the past couple of months I have decided that I really needed to do this, so I called my friend (she's an AMAZING hairdresser) and made an appointment. She was just as excited as I was when I told her what I wanted to do. So here is the before and after!

4. I am being a terrible blogger right now, my excuse is that I'm new, and not giving credit to the people who gave me this idea. I saw two separate posts, I think in blogs, not on Pinterest, over the past week or so and now I can't find them again to credit their creators. One post was about finding lapdesks at Michael's for $5 and using them for literacy centers. The other was having a special desk with brand new supplies for well-behaved kiddos to sit at. I combined these ideas to create these lapdesks for my kiddos to sit at when they are being especially good. Each desk has a different quote on the top and the both say "STAR STUDENT" "SMART STUDENT" on either side. The kiddos love to sit on the floor and this way I will be able to accomodate two of them at once. If you are the creator of one of the other ideas, please remind me and I will give you create by linking to your post!

5. I found these little cuties at Michael's as well and cannot wait to find a way to use them with my kiddos! 

Finally, and most exciting of all, I won my very first giveaway! Upon waking up this morning, I got right up and started my very productive last day of break I rolled over, grabbed my phone, and checked Facebook. Much to my surprise, Theresa and Robyn from Pinkadots Elementary had posted their winner for the 100 Follower Giveaway...and the winner was yours truly! I cannot tell you how excited I was/am to win my first giveaway! And what a giveaway this is...I am loving receiving all of the emails from the amazing contributors sharing their TpT products with me. I will write more about them later as I begin using my TERRIFIC new products! If you haven't been over to Pinkadots Elementary, you should check it out now, Theresa and Robyn are wonderful! Thanks again ladies!